PS 1148 
.B8 V3 
1914 
Copy 1 



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THE VALUE 

OF AN 

IDEAL 



WILLIAM 
JENNINGS 

BRVAN 



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THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 



THE 

VALUE OF AN IDEAL 



By 
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 



iQixA^ 




FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 
1914 



199 






PUBLISHERS' NOTE 

"The Value of An Ideal" is a lecture 
delivered by Mr. B^an at numerous 
Chautauquas and College gatherings, be- 
ginning in 1 90 1. 



Copyright, 1909 and 1914. by 

WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 

Published, September, 1914 



I/. 30 



(printed m TET. CNTTED STATES OF ASnCRICA) 



SEP 30 1914 



THE VALUE OF AN 
IDEAL 

WHAT is the value of an ideal? 
Have you ever attempted to 
estimate its worth? Have you ever 
tried to measure its value in dollars 
and cents? If you would know the 
pecuniary value of an ideal, go into 
the home of some man of great 
wealth who has an only son; go into 
that home when the son has gone 
downward in a path of dissipation 
until the father no longer hopes for 
his reform, and then ask the father 
what an ideal would have been worth 
that would have made a man out of 
his son instead of a wreck. He will 
tell you that all the money that he has 
[5] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

or could have he would gladly give 
for an ideal of life that would turn 
his boy's steps upward instead of 
downward. 

An ideal is above price. It means 
the difference between success and 
failure — the difference between a no- 
ble life and a disgraceful career, and 
it sometimes means the difference be- 
tween life and death. Have you no- 
ticed the increasing number of sui- 
cides? I speak not of those sad cases 
in which the reason dethroned leaves 
the hand no guide, but rather of 
those cases, increasing in number, 
where the person who takes his life 
finds nothing worth living for. When 
I read of one of these cases I ask 
myself whether it is not caused by a 
false ideal of life. If one measures 
life by what others do for him he is 
apt to be disappointed, for people are 
[6] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

not likely to do as much for him as 
he expects. One of the most difficult 
things in life is to maintain the parity 
between one's opinion of his own 
merits and the opinion that others 
have of him. If, I repeat, a man 
measures life by what others do for 
him, he is apt to be disappointed, but 
if he measures life by what he does 
for others, there is no time for de- 
spair. If he measures life by its ac- 
cumulations, these usually fall short 
of his expectations, but if he meas- 
ures life by the contribution which he 
makes to the sum of human happi- 
ness, his only disappointment is in 
not finding time to do all that his 
heart prompts him to do. Whether 
he spends his time trying to absorb 
from the world, only to have the bur- 
den of life grow daily heavier, or 
spends his time in an effort to accom- 
[7] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

plish something of real value to the 
race, depends upon his ideal. 

The ideal must be far enough 
above us to keep us looking upward 
to it all the time, and it must be far 
enough in advance of us to keep us 
struggling toward it to the end of 
life. It is a very poor ideal that one 
ever fully realizes, and it is a great 
misfortune for one to overtake his 
ideal, for, when he does, his progress 
ceases. I was once made an honorary 
member of a class and asked to 
suggest a class motto. I suggested 
"Ever-Green'^ and some of the class 
did not like it. They did not like to 
admit that they ever had been green, 
not to speak of always being green. 
But it is a good class motto because 
the period of greenness is the period 
of growth. When we cease to be 
green and are entirely ripe we are 
[8] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

ready for decay. I like to think of 
life as a continual progress toward 
higher and better things — as a con- 
tinual unfolding. There is no better 
description of a really noble life than 
that given in Holy Writ where Solo- 
mon speaks of the path of the just as 
'like the shining light that shineth 
more and more unto the perfect day/' 
The ideal is permanent ; it does not 
change. Therefore it is so impor- 
tant that the ideal shall be a worthy 
one. I speak as a parent to parents, 
and teachers will endorse what I say, 
when I declare that one of the most 
important things in dealing with the 
young is to get the person to take 
firm hold of a high ideal. Give one 
food and he will hunger again; give 
him clothing and his clothing will 
wear out, but give him a high ideal 
and that ideal will be with him 
[9] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

through every waking hour, Hftin^ 
him to a higher plane in Hfe and giv- 
ing him a broader conception of his 
relations to his fellows. Plans may 
change; circumstances will change 
plans. Each one of us can testify to 
this. Even ambitions change, for cir- 
cumstances will change ambitions. If 
you will pardon a reference to my 
own case, I have had three ambitions 
— two so far back that I can scarcely 
remember them — and one so re- 
cent that I can hardly forget it. 
My first ambition was to be a 
Baptist preacher. When I was a 
small boy, if anybody asked me 
what I intended to be, I always re- 
plied : "A Baptist preacher" ; but my 
father took me one evening to see an 
immersion and upon reaching home 
I asked him if it would be necessary 
to go down into that pool of water in 
[10] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAJL 

order to be a Baptist preacher. He 
replied that it would, and it is a tra- 
dition in our family that I never 
afterward would say that I was 
going to be a Baptist preacher. 

My second ambition was to be a 
farmer and raise pumpkins, and there 
are doubtless a great many people 
who are glad that I now have a 
chance to realize my second ambition 
without having my agricultural pur- 
suits interrupted by official cares. 

My third ambition was to be a 
lawyer. When I was a small boy I 
used to go to the court-house and sit- 
ting upon the steps leading up 
to the bench upon which my father 
then sat I listened to the trial of cases 
and looked forward to the time 
when I would be practising at the 
bar. That ambition guided me 
through my boyhood days and my 
[11] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

college days. I studied law, was ad- 
mitted to the bar, practised for a while 
in Illinois and then located in Ne- 
braska. In removing from Illinois to 
Nebraska I was influenced solely by 
professional reasons. I need not give 
you any further assurance that I did 
not move to Nebraska for political 
reasons than to say that at the time 
of my location in Lincoln, Nebraska 
was republican, the congressional dis- 
trict was republican, the county was 
republican, the city was republican, 
the ward was republican, and the vot- 
ing precinct w^as republican — and to 
tell the truth about it, there has not 
been as much change in that respect 
as there ought to have been, consid- 
ering the intelligence of the people 
among whom I have been living. 

I entered politics by accident and 
remained there by design. I was 

[12] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

nominated for Congress in 1890 be- 
cause it was not thought possible for 
a democrat to be elected. I was 
young and new in the State. If it 
had been a democratic district the 
honor would have gone to some one 
older, of longer residence and more 
deserving. A republican paper said 
next morning after the convention 
that a confidence game had been 
played upon a young man from Illi- 
nois and that he had been offered as a 
sacrifice upon the party altar because 
he had not been in the State long 
enough to know the political complex- 
ion of the district. My location in 
Nebraska was due to my acquaintance 
with a man whom I learned to know 
in college, and this acquaintance be- 
came more intimate because of a joke 
which I played upon him when we 
were students. Tracing it back, step 
[13] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

by step, I said one evening in Balti- 
more that I was elected to Congress 
as a result of a joke that I played 
upon a friend in college. The gentle- 
man who followed me said that that 
was nothing, and that he had known 
men to go to Congress as a result of 
a joke they had played upon an en- 
tire community. 

My term in Congress brought me 
into contact with the great political 
and economic problems now demand- 
ing solution and I have never since 
that time been willing to withdraw 
myself from their study and discus- 
sion, and I offer no apology at this 
time for being interested in the sci- 
ence of government. It is a noble 
science, and one to which the citizen 
must give his attention. I have no 
patience with those who feel that they 
are too good to take part in politics. 

[14] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

When I find a person who thinks that 
he IS too good to take part in politics, 
I find one who is not quite good 
enough to deserve the blessings of a 
free government. Parents some- 
times warn their sons to keep out of 
politics; mothers sometimes urge 
their sons to avoid politics lest they 
become contaminated by it. This 
ought not to be. It used to be the 
boast of the Roman matron that she 
could rear strong and courageous 
sons for the battle-field. In this age 
when the victories of peace are no 
less renowned than the victories of 
war, and in this country where every 
year brings a conflict, it ought to be 
the boast of American mothers that 
they can rear strong and courageous 
sons who can enter politics without 
contamination and purify politics 
rather than be corrupted by politics. 
[15] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

But while my plans and ambitions 
have been changed by circumstances, 
I trust that my ideals of citizenship 
have not changed, and that I may be 
permitted to share with you an ideal 
that will place above the holding of 
any office, however great, the purpose 
to do what we can to make this coun- 
try so good that to be a private citi- 
zen in the United States will be 
greater than to be a king in any other 
nation. 

The ideal dominates the life, de- 
termines the character and fixes a 
man's place among his fellows. I 
shall mention some instances that 
have come under my own observation 
and as I speak of them I am sure you 
will recall instances within your 
knowledge where the ideal has in an 
open and obvious way controlled the 
life. I have known laboring men 
[16] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

who, working for wages, have been 
able to support themselves, acquire 
a library and become acquainted with 
the philosophers, orators and his- 
torians of the world, and many of 
them have laid aside enough to 
gratify their ambition for a college 
course. What enables them to resist 
temptation and press forward to the 
consummation of a high purpose? It 
is their ideal of life. As I have gone 
through the country I have found 
here and there young men — some- 
times the sons of farmers, sometimes 
the sons of mechanics, sometimes 
the sons of merchants, sometimes the 
sons of professional men — young 
men who have one characteristic in 
common, namely, that they have been 
preparing for service. They have 
learned that service is the measure of 
greatness, and tho they have not al- 
[17] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

ways known just what line of work 
they were to follow, they have been 
preparing themselves for service, and 
they will be ready when the oppor- 
tunity comes. 

I know a young man who came to 
this country when he was eighteen 
years of age; he came to study our 
institutions and learn of our form of 
government, and now he has returned 
with a determination to be helpful to 
his people. I watched him for five 
years, and I never knew a man who 
more patiently or perseveringly pur- 
sued a high ideal. You might have 
offered him all the money in the 
treasury to have become a citizen of 
the United States, but it would have 
been no temptation to him. He would 
have told you that he had a higher 
ideal than to stand guard over a chest 
of money. His desire was to be use- 

[18] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAT 

ful to his country, and I have no 
doubt that he will be. 

I was passing through Chicago 
some months ago, and, having a few 
hours to spare between trains, went 
out to Hull House, that splendid 
institution presided over by Jane 
Addams. I was surprized to learn of 
the magnitude of its work. I learned 
that more than five thousand names 
were enrolled upon the books of the 
association; that mothers left their 
babes there to be cared for when they 
went out to work, that little children 
received kindergarten instruction 
there, that young women found a 
home there, and young men a place 
where they could meet and commune 
free from the temptations of city life. 
More than twenty young men and 
young women give their entire time 
to the work of this association with- 
[19] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

out compensation. Similar institu- 
tions will be found in nearly all of 
the larger cities anddn many of the 
smaller ones, and in these institutions 
young men and young women, many 
of them college graduates, give a part 
or all of their time to gratuitous 
work. Why? Because somehow or 
somewhere they have taken hold of 
an ideal of life that lifts them above 
the sordid selfishness that surrounds 
them and makes them find a delight 
in bringing life and light and hope 
into homes that are dark. The same 
can be said of the thousands who 
labor in institutions of charity, mercy 
and benevolence. 

In December, 1903, it was my good 
fortune to spend a day in the country 
home of the great philosopher of 
Russia. You know something of the 
history of Tolstoy, how he was born 

[20] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

in the ranks of the nobility and how 
with such a birth he enjoyed every 
possible social distinction. At an 
early age he became a writer of fic- 
tion and his books have given him a 
fixt place among the novelists of the 
century. "He sounded all the depths 
and shoals of honor" in so far as 
honor could be derived from society 
or from literature, and yet, at the age 
of forty-eight, life seemed so vain 
and empty to him that he wanted to 
die. They showed me a ring in the 
ceiling of a room in his house from 
which he had planned to hang him- 
self. And what deterred him? A 
change came in his ideals. He was 
born again, he became a new crea- 
ture, and for more than twenty-eight 
years, clad in the garb of a peasant 
and living the simple life of a peas- 
ant, he has been preaching unto all 
[21] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

the world a philosophy that rests 
upon the doctrine ''Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart 
and thy neighbor as thyself/' There 
is scarcely a civilized community in 
all the world where the name of 
Tolstoy is not known and where his 
influence has not been felt. He has 
made such an impression upon the 
heart of Russia and the world that 
while some of his books are refused 
publication in Russia and denied im- 
portation from abroad, and while 
people are prohibited from circulat- 
ing some of the things that he writes, 
yet with a million men under arms 
the government does not lay its hands 
upon Tolstoy. 

Let me add another illustration of 

a complete change in the ideal. In 

college I became acquainted with a 

student fourteen years my senior, and 

[22] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

learned the story of his life. For 
some years he was a tramp, going 
from place to place without fixt pur- 
pose or habitation. One night he 
went by accident into a place where 
a revival was in progress, and he was 
not only converted' but he decided to 
be a minister. I watched him as he 
worked his way through college, do- 
ing chores to earn his board and 
lodging, working on Saturdays in a 
store, and during the summer months 
at anything he could find to do. I 
watched him as he worked his way 
through the theological seminary, and 
then I watched him as he preached 
the Gospel until he died, and I never 
knew a man more consecrated to a 
high purpose^ The change came in 
his life as in the twinkling of an eye. 
Could anything be more marvelous? 
Some have rejected the Christian 

[23] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

religion because they could not under- 
stand its mysteries and its miracles. 
I have been reading a book recently 
on materialism and I have been in- 
terested in the attempt of the author 
to drive God out of the universe. He 
searches for Him with a microscope, 
and, because he can not find him with 
a microscope, he declares that he is 
too small to see ; then he searches for 
Him with a telescope, and, because he 
can not see Him among the stars or 
beyond, he declares that there is no 
God — that matter and force alone are 
eternal, and that force acting on mat- 
ter has produced the clod, the grass 
that grows upon the clod, the beast 
that feeds upon the grass, and man, 
the climax of created things. I have 
tried to follow his reasoning and have 
made up my mind that it requires 
more faith to accept the scientific 

[24] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

demonstrations of materialism than 
to accept any religion I have ever 
known. As I tried to follow his syllo- 
gisms I was reminded of the reason- 
ing of a man who conceived the idea 
that a grasshopper heard through its 
legs. But he would not accept it 
without demonstration, so he took a 
grasshopper, put it on a board and 
knocked on the board. The grass- 
hopper jumped, and this he regarded 
as evidence that the sound traveled 
along the board till it reached the 
grasshopper's legs and then went up 
through the legs to the center of life. 
But he was not willing to accept it 
upon affirmative proof alone; he in- 
sisted upon proving it negatively, so 
he pulled the legs off the grasshopper 
and put it on the board and rapped 
again. As the grasshopper did not 

[25] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

jump, he was convinced that it heard 
through its legs. 

I say I was reminded of the grass- 
hopper scientist when I read the ar- 
guments employed to prove that there 
is no God, no spiritual life. 

In the journey from the cradle to 
the grave we encounter nothing so 
marvelous as that change in the ideals 
which works a revolution in the life 
itself, and there is nothing in ma- 
terialism to explain this change. 

It is of vital importance to the 
individual what his ideal is, and it 
also makes a difference to those about 
him. If you have a man working 
for you, it makes a great deal of 
difference to you whether he is 
watching you all the time to see that 
you give him the best possible pay 
for his work, or watching himself a 
little to see that he gives you the best 
[26] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

possible work for his pay. And wc 
are all working for somebody. In- 
stead of working by the day and re- 
ceiving our pay at night, or instead 
of working by the month and receiv- 
ing our pay at the end of the month, 
we may be in independent business 
and receiving a compensation fixt by 
competition, but if we are not living 
a life of idleness we must be working 
for somebody, and it makes a ma- 
terial difference to society whether 
we are simply bent upon absorbing as 
much as possible from the world, or 
are trying to give a dollar's worth of 
service for a dollar's worth of pay. 
There are some who regard it as a 
discreditable thing to engage in pro- 
ductive labor. There are places 
where they count with pride the num- 
ber of generations between them- 
selves and honest toil. If I can leave 
[27] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

but one thought with the young men 
who honor me by their presence on 
this occasion, let it be this thought — 
that we must all have food and cloth- 
ing and shelter, and must either earn 
these things or have them given to us, 
and any self-respecting young man 
ought to be ashamed to sponge upon 
the world for his living and not ren- 
der unto the world valuable service in 
return. 

Sometimes you meet a man who 
boasts that he is "self-made,'' that he 
did it all himself, that he owes no 
man anything. When I hear of a 
man boasting of his independence I 
feel like cross-examining him. We 
owe a great deal to environment. I 
was going along by the side of the 
court-house in Chicago one wintry 
day when I was in law school and 
saw some little boys gambling with 

[28] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

their pennies in a warm corner by the 
building. A question arose in my 
mind, namely, why these little fellows 
were born and reared amid an evi- 
ronment that gave them no higher 
ideals of life, while so many in Chi- 
cago and in the country at large were 
born amid a more favorable environ- 
ment. The scene made an impression 
upon my memory, and when I hear a 
man boasting that he owes no one 
anything, I feel like asking him 
whether he has paid back the debt he 
owes to father and mother, teacher 
and seer. Whether he has paid 
back the debt he owes to the patriots 
who with blood and sacrifice pur- 
chased the liberties which we now 
enjoy. We have received so much 
from the generations past and from 
those about us that, instead of boast- 
ing of what we have done, we ought 

[29] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

to learn humility and be content if at 
the end of life we can look back over 
the years and be assured that we have 
given to the world a service equal in 
value to that which we have received. 

There is abroad in the land a spec- 
ulative spirit that is doing much 
harm. Instead of trying to earn a 
living, young men are bent on making 
a fortune. Not content with the 
slow accumulations of honest toil, 
they are seeking some short cut to 
riches, and are not always scrupulous 
about the means employed. The 
"get-rich-quick'' schemes that spring 
up and swindle the public, until they 
are discovered and driven out, prey 
upon the speculative spirit and find 
all their victims among those who are 
trying to get something for nothing. 

What we need to-day is an ideal of 
life that will make people as anxious 

[30] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

to render full service as they are to 
draw full pay — an ideal that will 
make them measure life by what they 
bestow upon their fellows and not by 
what they receive. 

Not only must the individual have 
an ideal, but we must have ideals as 
groups of individuals and in every 
department of life. We have our 
domestic ideals. Whether a mar- 
riage is happy or not depends not so 
much upon the size of the house or 
the amount of the income, as upon 
the ideals with which the parties 
enter marriage. If two people con- 
tract marriage like some people trade 
horses — each one trying to get the 
better of the bargain — it is not cer- 
tain that the marriage will be a happy 
one. In fact, the man who cheats in 
a horse trade has at least one advan- 
tage over the man who cheats in 

[31] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

matrimony. The man who cheats in 
a horse trade may console himself 
with the thought that he may never 
see again the person whom he has 
cheated. Not so fortunate is the man 
who cheats in marriage. He not only 
sees daily the person whom he has 
cheated, but he is sometimes reminded 
of it — and it is just as bad if the 
cheating is done by the other side. 
Americans sometimes have cause to 
blush when they read of some of the 
international marriages discust in the 
papers. I speak not now of those 
cases where love leaps across the 
ocean and binds two hearts — there are 
such cases and they are worthy of a 
blessing. But I speak rather of those 
commercial transactions which are, 
by courtesy, called marriages, where 
some young woman in this country 
trades a fortune that she never 

[32] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

earned to a broken-down prince in 
another country for a title that he 
never earned, and they call it a fair 
exchange. I have sometimes thought 
that it might be worth v^hile to estab- 
lish papers in the centers of the old 
world to tell the people of our real 
marriages, so that they would not 
misunderstand us. 

There is an American ideal of do- 
mestic life. When two persons, 
drawn together by the indissoluble 
ties of love, enter marriage, each one 
contributing a full part and both 
ready to share life's struggles and 
trials as well as its victories and its 
joys — when these, mutually helpful 
and mutually forbearing, start out to 
build an American home it ought to 
be the fittest earthly type of heaven. 

In business it is necessary to have 
an ideal. It is as impossible to build 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

a business without an ideal as it is to 
build a house without a plan. Some 
think that competition is so sharp 
now that it is impossible to be strictly 
honest in business; some think that 
it is necessary to recommend a thing, 
not as it is, but as the customer wants 
it to be. There never was a time 
when it was more necessary than it is 
to-day that business should be built 
upon a foundation of absolute integ- 
rity. 

In the professions, also, an ideal is 
necessary. Take the medical profes- 
sion for illustration. It is proper 
that the physician should collect 
money from his patients for he must 
live while he helps others to live, but 
the physicians who have written their 
names high upon the scroll of fame 
have had a higher ideal than the 
making of money. They have had a 

[34] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

passion for the study of their profes- 
sion; they have searched diligently 
for the hidden causes of disease and 
the remedies therefor and they have 
found more delight in giving to the 
world some discovery of benefit to the 
race than they have found in all the 
money they have collected from their 
patients. 

And the lawyer; has he ideals? 
Yes. And I suppose the ideals of 
lawyers vary as much as the ideals 
in any other profession. The law- 
yer's ideals have an influence upon 
his character. He can not persist- 
ently defeat justice, or even ignore 
it, without a certain lowering of his 
manhood, while conscientious search 
for justice increases his power of 
discernment and adds to his moral 
strength. 

Then, too, a lawyer's influence with 

[35] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

the judge depends largely upon his 
reputation for honesty. Of course, a 
lawyer can fool a judge a few times 
and lead him into a hole, but after 
a while the judge learns to know the 
lawyer, and then he can not follow 
the lawyer's arguments because he is 
looking for the hole all the time, 
which he knows is somewhere and 
which he is trying to avoid. I need 
not remind you that nothing is so 
valuable to a jury lawyer as a repu- 
tation that will make the jurors be- 
lieve that he will not under any cir- 
cumstances misstate a proposition of 
law or of evidence. And so I might 
take up each occupation, calling and 
profession, and show that the ideal 
controls the life, determines the char- 
acter and establishes a man's place 
among his fellows. 

But let me speak of the ideals of a 
[36] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

larger group. What of our political 
ideals ? The party as well as the indi- 
vidual must have its ideals, and we 
are far enough from the election to 
admit that there is room in all par- 
ties for the raising of the party ideal. 
How can a person most aid his 
party? Let us suppose that one is 
passionately devoted to his party and 
anxious to render it the maximum 
of service; how can he render this 
service? By raising the ideal of his 
party. If a young man asks me how 
he can make a fortune in a day, I 
can not tell him. If he asks how he 
can become rich in a year, I know not 
what to answer him, but I can tell 
him that if he will locate in any com- 
munity and for twenty-five years live 
an honest life, an industrious life, a 
useful life, he will make friends and 
fasten them to him with hooks of 
[S7] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

Steel ; he will make his impress upon 
the community and the chances are 
many to one that before the quarter 
of a century has elapsed his fellows 
will call upon him to act for them and 
to represent them in important mat- 
ters. 

And so if you ask me how we can 
win an election this year, I do not 
know. If you ask me how we can 
insure a victory four years from now, 
I can not tell, but I do know that the 
party which has the highest ideals 
and that strives most earnestly to 
realize its ideals will ultimately dom- 
inate this country and make its im- 
press upon the history of the nation. 
As it is more important that the 
yoimg man shall know how to build 
character and win a permanent suc- 
cess than that he shall know how to 
become rich in a day, so it is more 

[38] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

important that we shall know how to 
contribute to the permanent influence 
of a party than it is that we be able 
to win a temporary victory or dis- 
tribute the spoils of office after a suc- 
cessful campaign. 

The country is suffering to-day 
from a demoralization of its ideals. 
Instead of measuring people by the 
manhood or womanhood they mani- 
fest, we are too prone to measure 
them by the amount of money they 
possess, and this demoralization has 
naturally and necessarily extended to 
politics. Instead of asking "Is it 
right?'' we are tempted to ask "Will 
it pay?'' and "Will it win?" As a 
result the public conscience is becom- 
ing seared and the public service de- 
bauched. We find corruption in elec- 
tions and corruption in office. Men 

sell their votes, councilmen sell their 
[39] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

influence, while State legislators and 
federal representatives turn the gov- 
ernment from its legitimate channels 
and make it a private asset in busi- 
ness. It is said that in some precincts 
in Delaware a majority of the voters 
have been paid for their votes. Gov- 
ernor Garvin of Rhode Island calls 
attention to the corruption in that 
State; there is corruption in Con- 
necticut, in New Jersey and in Penn- 
sylvania. I learned of an instance in 
New York where a farmer with a 
quarter-section of land demanded a 
dollar and a half for his vote, and I 
learned of another instance in West 
Virginia where a man came in four- 
teen miles from the country the day 
before election to notify the com- 
mittee that he would not vote the next 
day unless he received a dollar. In 
some places I found that democrats 

[40] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

were imitating republican methods. 
They excused it by saying that they 
were fighting the devil with fire. 
This is no excuse. It is poor policy 
to fight the devil with fire. He knows 
more about fire than you do and does 
not have to pay so much for fuel. I 
was assured that the democrats did 
not buy votes exactly like the repub- 
licans. I was assured that the demo- 
crats only bought votes when they 
found some democrat who was being 
tempted more than he could bear, and 
that they only used money to fortify 
the virtue of the democrat for fear 
he might yield to temptation and be- 
come vicious. 

How are we to stop this corrup- 
tion? Not by going into the market 
and bidding against our opponents, 
but by placing against money some- 
thing stronger than money. And 

[41] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

what is stronger than money? A 
conscience is stronger than money. 
A conscience that will enable a man 
to stand by a stake and smile while 
the flames consume him is stronger 
than money, and we must appeal to 
the conscience — not to a democratic 
conscience or to a republican con- 
science, but to an American con- 
science and to a Christian conscience, 
and place this awakened conscience 
against the onflowing tide of corrup- 
tion in the United States. 

We must have parties in this coun- 
try. Jefferson said that there were 
naturally two parties in every coun- 
try — a democratic party and an 
aristocratic party (and he did not use 
the word ^'democratic" in a partizan 
sense, for at that time the party 
which we now call democratic was 
called the republican party). Jef- 
[42] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

ferson said that a democratic party 
would naturally draw to itself those 
who believe in the people and trust 
them, while an aristocratic party 
would naturally draw to itself those 
who do not believe in or trust the 
people. Jefferson was right. Go into 
any country in Europe, and you will 
find a party of some name that is 
trying to increase the participation of 
the people in the government, and 
you will also find a party of some 
name which is obstructing every step 
toward popular government. We 
have the same difference in this coun- 
try, but the democratic spirit is 
broader here than any party. 
Wherever the question has been 
clearly presented and on the one side 
there was an attempt to carry the 
government nearer to the people and 
on the other an effort to carry the 

[43] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

government further from the people, 
popular government has always won. 
Let me illustrate. The Australian 
ballot is intended to protect the citi- 
zen in his right to vote, and thus give 
efifect to the real wishes of the people, 
and when this reform was proposed 
it swept the country without regard 
to the party in power in the various 
States. Take the demand for the 
election of senators by the people; 
upon what does it rest? Upon the 
belief that the people have the right 
to and the capacity for self-govern- 
ment. The sentiment in favor of 
this reform has grown until a resolu- 
tion proposing a constitutional 
amendment has passed the Lower 
House of Congress four times — twice 
when the house was democratic and 
twice when it was republican. This 

reform is sure to come, because tEe 
[44] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

people believe in self-government, 
and they will in time insist upon mak- 
ing the government conform to their 
belief.* 

The initiative and referendum in- 
volve the same principles. The in- 
itiative describes the process by 
which the people compel the submis- 
sion of a question upon which they 
desire to vote, and the referendum 
describes the process by which they 
act upon a question submitted. In 
each new charter the power of the 
people is increased. Limitations are 
placed upon legislative power and 
new questions are submitted to a 
popular vote. It is now necessary 
almost everywhere to submit to the 
people of a city the question of issu- 
ing bonds. The movement in favor 

* This reform has since been accomplished by 
the adoption of a constitutional amendment. 
[45] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

of submitting franchises also is an 
irresistible one, and the time will 
come when it will be impossible for 
councilmen to sell franchises in re- 
turn for money paid to themselves. 

Switzerland is probably the most 
democratic country in the world. 
There the initiative and referendum 
are employed by both the federal 
government and by the local subdi- 
visions, and the government is com- 
pletely responsive to the will of the 
people. 

In order to formulate a party 
ideal, we must have a theory of gov- 
ernment as a basis, and in this coun- 
try the fundamental principle of 
government is that the people have 
a right to have what they want in 
legislation. I made this statement in 
a lecture in Michigan and one of the 
audience took issue with me. He 
[46] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

said that I ought to amend the state- 
ment and say that the people have a 
right to have what they want, pro- 
vided they want zvhat is right. I 
asked him who would decide the ques- 
tion of right. And he had to admit 
that, at last, the decision lay with the 
people. Constitutions place limita- 
tions upon legislatures and upon the 
people themselves, but the constitu- 
tions are made by the people and can 
be changed by the people. The only 
escape from the rule of the majority 
is to be found in the rule of the 
minority, but if a majority make mis- 
takes, would not a minority also? 
Mistakes made by a majority will be 
corrected when they are discovered, 
but mistakes made by a minority may 
not be corrected if the mistakes are 
pecuniarily advantageous to those in 
power. The revolutions that have 
[47] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

from time to time shaken the world 
have been caused largely by the re- 
fusal of the minority to correct mis- 
takes beneficial to those who make 
the mistakes but injurious to the peo- 
ple at large. Bearing in mind the 
right of the people to deliberately fix 
the means by which they will express 
themselves, and their right to place 
limitations upon themselves, so that 
they can not act hastily or under a 
sudden impulse, I repeat that the 
people have a right to have what they 
want in government. If they want a 
high tariff, they have a right to it; 
if they want a low tariff, they have 
a right to that. They have a right 
to make tariff laws and to repeal 
them. They have a right to the gold 
standard if they want it, and they 
have a right to the double standard 
if they desire that, or if they prefer 
[48] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

they can demonetize both gold and 
silver and substitute some other kind 
of money. If gold and silver furnish 
too much money, they can strike 
down one; if the remaining metal 
still furnishes too much, they can 
strike that down and substitute some- 
thing scarcer. Ever since the dis- 
covery of radium, of which it is said 
there are but two pounds in the 
world, I have been fearful that an 
attempt would be made to make it the 
standard money of the country. But 
if the people decide to demonetize 
both gold and silver and substitute 
radium I will still insist that they 
have a right to do it. And, then, if 
they decide to give Morgan one 
pound and Rockefeller the other, I 
shall still stand with the people and 
watch Rockefeller and Morgan while 
they use the money. 
[49] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

The people have a right to have 
trusts if they want them. They have 
a right to have one trust, a hundred 
trusts or a thousand, and they also 
have a right to make a private monop- 
oly impossible. 

If the people have a right to have 
what they want, then the duty of the 
party is plain. It is to present to the 
people a code of principles and poli- 
cies to be acted upon by them. Who 
can defend the practising of decep- 
tion upon the voters? Who can jus- 
tify the winning of a victory by false 
pretense? Who can excuse a fraud 
upon the people? No one can defend 
a party ideal that does not require 
honesty in party contests. The pol- 
icy of the party must be determined 
by the voters of the party, and he 
must have a low conception of polit- 
ical ethics who would seek by stealth 
[50] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

to give to the minority of the party 
the authority that belongs to the ma- 
jority. And so he must have a low 
conception of political ethics who 
would seek to secure for a minority 
of the people the authority that be- 
longs to a majority. I want my party 
to write an honest platform, dealing 
candidly with the questions at issue; 
I want it to nominate a ticket com- 
posed of men who conscientiously be- 
lieve in the principles of the party as 
enunciated, and then I want the party 
to announce to the country "These 
are our principles ; these are our can- 
didates. Elect them and they will 
carry out the principles for which 
they stand; they will not under any 
circumstances betray the trust com- 
mitted to their keeping.'' 

This is the ideal that the demo- 
[51] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

cratic party ought to have and it is 
an ideal high enough for every party. 
There is this difference between 
the ideal and other things of value, 
namely, that an ideal can not be pat- 
ented or copyrighted. We often see 
things that we can not hope to pos- 
sess, but there is no ideal, however 
high, that can not be ours if we desire 
it. The highest ideal of human life 
that this world has ever known was 
that presented to mankind by the Man 
of Galilee, but it was an ideal wdthin 
the comprehension of the fishermen 
of his day, and the Bible says of Him 
that the common people heard Him 
gladly. So it is with a high party 
ideal. It can be comprehended by all 
the members of the party, and it can 
be adopted by every party. If we can 
fight out political battles upon this 
plane there is no humiliation about 

[52] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

defeat. I have passed through two 
presidential campaigns, and many 
have rejoiced over my defeats, but if 
events prove that my defeats have 
been good for this country, I shall 
rejoice over them myself more than 
any opponent has rejoiced. And 
when I say this I am not unselfish, 
for it is better for me that my politi- 
cal opponents should bring good to 
my country than that I should by any 
mistake of mine bring evil. 

Not only must the party have an 
ideal, but the nation must also have 
its ideal, and it is the ideal of this 
nation that has made it known 
throughout the world. You will find 
people in foreign lands who do not 
know our population or the number 
of acres under our flag. You will 
find people who do not know how 

many cattle we raise or how much 
[53] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

corn or cotton we export, but you 
will not find people anywhere who 
have not some conception of the na- 
tion's ideal. This ideal has been a 
light shining out unto all the world 
and its rays have illumined the shores 
of every land. We have boasted of 
this ideal in the past, and it must not 
be lowered now. We followed this 
ideal in dealing with Cuba. It was 
my good fortune to be in Cuba on 
the day when the formal transfer 
took place, and I never was more 
proud of my nation in my life than 
I was on the 20th day of May, 1902, 
when this great republic rose superior 
to a great temptation, recognized the 
inalienable rights of the people of 
Cuba and secured to them the fruits 
of a victory for which they had strug- 
gled and sacrificed for more than a 
generation. We hauled down the 
[54] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

flag, it is true, and in its place they 
raised the flag of the Cuban republic, 
but when we lowered the flag we 
raised it higher than it ever had been 
before, and when we brought it away 
we left it enshrined in the hearts of a 
grateful people. 

A nation, like an individual, is 
strong in proportion as it possesses 
virtue, and weak if it lacks it. Char- 
acter is the power of endurance in 
the group as well as in the person. 
The nations that have fallen have 
decayed morally before they have 
failed physically. If our nation is to 
endure, it must stand for eternal 
principles and clothe itself in their 
strength. There are some who say 
that we must now have the largest 
navy in the world to terrorize other 
nations, and make them respect us. 

But if we make our navy the largest 

[55] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

in the world, other nations will in- 
crease their navies because we have 
increased ours, and then we will have 
to increase ours again, because they 
have increased theirs, and they will 
have to increase theirs again because 
we have increased ours — and there 
is no limit to this rivalry except 
the limit of the power of the people 
to bear the burdens of taxation. 
There is a better, a safer and a less 
expensive plan. Instead of trying to 
make our navy the largest in the 
world, let us try to make our gov- 
ernment the best government on 
earth. Instead of trying to make our 
flag float everywhere, let us make it 
stand for justice wherever it floats — 
for justice between man and man, 
for justice between nation and nation, 
and for humanity always. And then 
the people of the world will learn to 
[56] 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL 

know and revere that flag, because it 
will be their protection as well as 
ours. And then if any king raises his 
hand against our flag the opprest 
people of his own land will rise up 
and say to him "Hands off! That 
flag stands for our rights as well as 
the rights of the American people/' 
It is possible to make our flag repre- 
sent such an ideal. We shall not ful- 
fil our great mission, we shall not 
live up to our high duty, unless we 
present to the world the highest ideals 
in individual life, in domestic life, in 
business life, in professional life, in 
political life — and the highest na- 
tional ideal that the world has ever 
known. 



[57] 



SPEECHES 

OF 

WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 

All who are called upon to speak from platform or 
pulpit can gain much from a study of William J. 
Bryan* s methods. 

This man probably has spoken to more people 
than any other man who ever lived. And — 

His eloquence belongs to our own time — is a pro- 
duct of this day and generation — is the kind of speech 
used effectively before your fellow men TO-DAY. 

Now for the first time his principal speeches have 
been printed in two permanent volumes, personally 
revised and arranged by the orator. Mrs. (Mary 
Baird) Bryan has added a biographical introduction, 
which we supplement with portrait illustrations 
showing Mr. Bryan at various ages. 

Besides many famous political speeches, the two 

volumes contain these oratorical gems : — 

" Patriotism," in London on Thanksgiving Day, " Man," 
"Radicalism and Conservatism," "The White Man's Burden," 
" Missions," "At the Peace Congress," " The Value of an Ideal,' 



Faith," "The Prince of Peace," "The Price of a Soul,' 

His 
ation 
Re- 
sources," "Lincoln as an Orator," "Dreamers. 



"Character," "Presenting a Copy of Gray's Elegy," "To ] 
Neighbors," " Memorial Day at Arlington," " At His Recept 
in Lincoln," " Commerce," " The Conservation of Natural ] 



" Not a tew judges pronounce Mr. Bryan the greatest living 
orator in the English language."— T'orori to Globe. 

" Mrs. Bryan deserves great credit for her critical appreciation 
of her husband's work and place in the world."— iV. Y. Press. 

Tivo •voIumes^Cloth ,- each $i.oo, net ; both 'volumes by maily 

$2.IJ. Half-leather, each $1.50^ net; by 

mail, both •volumes, $J.IJ. 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 



SPEECHES 

OF 
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 

All who are called upon to speak from platform or 
pulpit can gain much from a study of Wtlliam J, 
Bryan's methods. 

This man probably has spoken to more people 
than any other man who ever lived. And — 

His eloquence belongs to our own time — is a pro- 
duct of this day and generation — is the kind of speech 
used effectively before your fellow men TO-DAY. 

Now for the first time his principal speeches have 
been printed in two permanent volumes, personally 
revised and arranged by the orator. Mrs. (Mary 
Baird) Bryan has added a biographical introduction, 
which we supplement with portrait illustrations 
showing Mr. Bryan at various ages. 

Besides many famous political speeches, the two 

volumes contain these oratorical gems : — 

" Patriotism," in London on Thanksgiving Day, " Man," 
" Radicalism and Conservatism," " The White Man's Burden," 
"Missions," "At the Peace Congress," "The Value of an Ideal," 
"Faith," "The Prince of Peace," "The Price of a Soul," 
"Character," "Presenting a Copy of Gray's Elegy," "To His 
Neighbors," " Memorial Day at Arlington," " At His Reception 
in Lmcoln," " Commerce," " The Conservation of Natural Re- 
sources," "Lincoln as an Orator," "Dreamers." 

"Not a few judges pronounce Mr. Bryan the greatest living 
orator in the English language."— T'oro/i^o Globe. 

" Mrs. Bryan deserves great credit for her critical appreciation 
of her husband's work and place in the world."— iV. T. Press. 

Two volumes ^Cloth f each $i.oo^ net ; both volumes by mail, 

$2.IJ. Half-leather, each $l.^O, net; by 

mail, both volumes, $J.IJ. 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 



HOW TO 
SPEAK IN PUBLIC 

A Most Suggestive and PraSiicai Self- Instructor 
By Grenville Kleiser 

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OUTLINE OF CONTENTS 



Mechanics of Elocution 
Mental Aspects 
Public Speaking 
Selections for Practise 



Previous Preparation 
Physical Preparation 
Mental Preparation 
Moral Preparation 



Preparation of Speech 

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